


After Death

by clgfanfic



Category: War of the Worlds (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 19:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clgfanfic/pseuds/clgfanfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from the episode "Angel of Death."</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Death

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in the zine Green Floating Weirdness #4 under the pen name Laura Brush.

_"We died in there, didn't we?"_

 

          She stood alone, watching the scene before her.  It was quiet now, making it difficult to remember that hours ago they had been in the middle of a war.  Here and there rounds of ammunition pitted the walls, the holes blackened around the edges.  It was quiet, so quiet even the splash of water surging beneath half the structure was muted.  Around the bay, lights were coming on, casting rippling reflections onto the surf…  At any other time the microbiologist would have been struck with the beauty and ingenuity of the architect's design.  But it was too soon.  She had tasted death and it had left a bitter residue.  It was not the first nor, she thought, would it be the last time she would see such destruction.  Seventeen pools of froth-rimmed alien remains dotted the floor where she stood.  And there was the blood…

          They had been lucky this time.  No one had been hurt.  At least, she amended silently, not permanently.  She shivered, and turned back to join Norton and Ironhorse.  Lost in their own thoughts, neither responded as she sat down and pressed her back up against Drake's still legs.

          They should go to the hospital, she concluded.  Just in case there were minor wounds…  Minor wounds... Glancing at the front of her shirt, Suzanne studied the still drying blood stain.  It had seeped into the material in growing concentric circles, evidence of the artery that had been nicked.  Shaking her head to force her eyes off the grim reminder of their close call, she sought out Harrison, but he was missing.

          No, not missing, she remembered.  He had left with Kitara.  Why hadn't Ironhorse gone with him to make sure everything went okay?  It didn't matter.  She was too grateful for the soldier's comforting presence to worry about it.

          Suzanne drew a deep breath in an attempt to conceal her relief at all being well, but something still clamored in her mind, warning her of danger.

          "Suzanne?"

          She jumped, realizing that Ironhorse was speaking.  His hand gripped her shoulder.  "Are you all right?" he asked carefully.

          She nodded, forcing her eyes to shift focus from the inky blackness beyond the glass walls of the fairgrounds, settling on the warm blackness of the colonel's eyes.  "Yes."

          "I'm not so sure," the soldier said softly, reaching up to touch her pale cheek.  "Why don't you lie down.  I'll get Harrison—"

"No, really," Suzanne reassured, reaching up to draw her jacket over the bloodstain he was staring at.  "But maybe you better check on Harrison."

          Ironhorse nodded, withdrawing his hand reluctantly.  The contact had made him feel safer somehow.  Resolutely, he stood, staring down at the pair, his head cocking slightly to the right as he persisted, "You're sure?"

          "We're fine," Norton said, his usual carefree voice introspective.  "Go get the Doc before he's the first human to undertake transdimensional space travel, okay?"

          That tugged a thin smile out of the soldier, and he managed to take a step in the direction of the exit.  Turning, he noticed the blood-soaked shoulders of his flannel shirt, but with a brief shake of his head he stalked off.

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          Harrison stood, watching the empty night sky that had, just minutes before, been ablaze with an iridescent maelstrom of whirling color.  Excitement tingled along every fiber of his being, the adrenaline high numbing him to the cold night air.  He sensed Ironhorse step up alongside him, as silent as space.

          "Is she gone?" the soldier asked in an uncharacteristic whisper.

          Blackwood's head levered slowly up then down.  "It was incredible," he breathed.  "The technology alone…"  He trailed off, unsure as to how he could explain the overwhelming sense of awe.

          "We'd better move, Harrison.  I have to call Omega, and—"  Ironhorse broke off, realizing that he wasn't reacting like he should, like he _would_ under normal circumstances.  This wasn't _normal_ , he thought.  Aliens killing aliens, aliens made of computer chips, aliens with power over life and death.  A sudden chill racked the colonel's body and he took a step closer to the taller man.  Blackwood didn't notice.  "Who was she?" Ironhorse nearly hissed.

          Harrison shook his head and ran his fingers through the unruly light brown curls.  "I wish I knew, Colonel."

          "She was a machine."

          "An android," the astrophysicist corrected, shoving his hands into his pockets, feeling the cold for the first time.  "A synthetic life form… I can't even imagine."  He swung to face the soldier.  "How does she think?  Does she feel?  Can she love?"

          Ironhorse's hands came up in a gesture of surrender.  "Don't ask me, Doctor."

          Hunching his shoulders against the cold, Blackwood looked skyward.  "She was our friend.  She saved our lives."

          Ironhorse remained silent for several moments, waiting for the scientist's thoughts to return to Earth. "Harrison, we have to go."

Blackwood nodded, looking back at the colonel.  "I wanted to go with her," he confessed in a whisper.

          "I know," Ironhorse replied.

          Tears filled Harrison's blue eyes.  "I wanted to escape the aliens, the fighting…  God, Paul, I wanted to leave you all alone."

          The Cherokee officer chewed his lower lip thoughtfully.  "That's a negative, Doctor," he said with a shake of his head.  "You might have wanted to go, but it was curiosity.  You're a scientist, Harrison.  You want to know things."

          Blackwood shifted, his agitation growing.  "We nearly died in there, and I was ready to step on a beam of starlight and—"

          "Harrison," Ironhorse interrupted before the man could talk himself into a depression.  "You didn't."

          "Kitara said it was impossible, but she read my thoughts.  She knew I wanted to go," the scientist said softly.  Forcing the pain out of his voice as best he could, Blackwood continued.  "A little peace, that's all I wanted."

          "It's all any of us want," the colonel said, rubbing his hands together to fight the cold.  "Let's go home, Harrison."

          Blackwood nodded.  As Ironhorse turned back toward the large glass and scaffold building, Harrison reached out and snared the soldier's shoulder.  "We died in there, didn't we?"

          There was no question in Harrison's voice.  The colonel's muscles tensed.  "You and I…  I don't know.  Suzanne and Norton, yes."

          "She saved our lives."

          "Yes," was Ironhorse's whispered reply.  "But even now, it scares the hell of out of me," he added, not turning to look at Blackwood.  "There's something wrong here, Harrison.  Something very, very wrong."

          "I think I feel it," was the equally quiet reply.  With a tug Harrison turned the soldier toward him, then pulled the man into a loose embrace.  "Thank God we made it."

          Ironhorse merely nodded.


End file.
